Christ on a bicycle.

SCOTUS rules on public health.

I’m reading Justice Gorsuch’s disturbingly unsettled opinion in support of the First Amendment. Why does it disturb me? Because it reads like tbe spittle-flecked rant of a red-faced old uncle at the Thanksgiving table. The guy who opines with a righteous anger veering all over the map to make a point no one understands. The uncle who substitutes logic with a raised voice, and everyone studiously avoids while passing the stuffing.

Gorsuch seems to take particular offense that bike stores are exempt from lockdowns but churches are not. He quotes a reverend saying it’s a ‘dismissal of the work we do here.’ Here being inside a church.

In New York, we use bikes to get to work. It’s a practical matter. Church on the other hand is a choice of some folks, no problem with that, but to some others of us, the ‘work we do here’ is largely invisible, non-essential and can easily be done remotely. Indeed, privacy can be beneficial to the ‘work’ being done.

Commuting to work however requires a bike.

Gorsuch spent some time at Columbia, so one assumes he might know this, but then again by church I think he sees poorly attended services in Christian buildings. The other side of this opinion are the synagogues of Williamsburg, which are packed to the rafters with maskless…